The American government is planning to transfer $410 million to the Palestinian Authority in an effort to strengthen its president, Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister, Salam Fayyad, Ynet reported Wednesday... Sources in the US government stress that the aid marks an unprecedented effort aimed at saving the PA led by Abbas. The US is thereby swerving from its traditional handovers and is handing over a sum approaching half a billion dollars. Half of the American aid will be directed at infrastructures, $35 million will be transferred to the Food and Employment Bureau of the United Nations Refugees Works Agency (UNRWA). The remainder of the money will be combined with the PA's continuous budget.

Even without counting the money that's going directly into the PA budget (wonder what that's going to be used for), all humanitarian aid is de facto security assistance anyway. Which is good, because Hamas is going to need to replenish their money and weapons after they take over the West Bank. Right now all they've got are the 200 tons of explosives left over from the last time they seized Fatah-bound US security assistance. 200 tons of explosives plus whatever's left over from this partial list:

The list of claimed seized U.S. material included:
* "Dozens" of mounted machine guns
* Approximately 7,400 American M-16 assault rifles
* About 800,000 rounds of bullets.
* Eighteen armored personnel carriers
* Seven armored military jeeps
* "Tens" of armored civilian cars, including pickup trucks and magnums.
* Eight massive trucks equipped with water cannons for dispersing protests
* Fourteen military-sized bulldozers
Hamas sources said the terror group was still sifting through the weapons and equipment it obtained. They said the list they provided didn't include what they said were large quantities of U.S.-provided rocket propelled grenades, grenade launchers, explosives, and military equipment, such as boots and tents.

We don't have the energy for this nonsense any more. Here's the link to posts tagged with security assistance, detailing the various ways US weapons and money end up in Hamas's hands. This will be post 21 in that tag, but just give Hamas a few weeks to jack this latest shipment and we'll see about adding a few more.

We suppose that it's probably beside the point to note that giving money to UNRWA is counterproductive and actually impoverishes Palestinian society, but just for completion's sake...

References:
* US to transfer $410 million to PA [YNet]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault) [MR]
* Hamas lists seized U.S. weapons [WND]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* Benny Elon's Israel Initiative Neglects Possibility That Arab States, UN Uninterested In Rehabilitating Palestinian Society [MR]

Previously:
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong?
* State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence

US Unveils $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas

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